Anna Karenina: Novel, Ballet, PlayThursday, November 30, 2017
Can you dance Anna Karenina? And what would be your response to Leo Tolstoy's monumental novel if you watched Russian actors perform it to the music of Alfred Schnittke? This screening of Stage Russia's recording of the Moscow Vakhtangov Theater's production, directed by Angelika Cholina, will serve as an introduction to one of the most vibrant interpretations of Tolstoy's work done on the Russian stage.

Free and open to the public. In English.

Time:

5:00 pm

Location:

Weis Cinema

Russian TableWednesday, November 29, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, November 22, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, November 15, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Hannah Arendt on RevolutionMonday, November 13, 2017
The Russian Revolution was largely absent from Hannah Arendt’s book-length exploration of modern revolutions. This absence follows from Arendt’s understanding of the Russian Revolution as a social revolution that follows the model of the French Revolution, and thus one that failed to offer anything new to our understanding of revolutions. Arendt’s dismissal of the Russian Revolution and also her critique of social revolutions has been controversial, and widely criticized for ignoring the driving force of revolutions to help the poor.

In spite of this, Arendt does return to the question of Russian revolution when she writes on the local workers councils (the Soviets). In this, she values the heritage of 1917, only to recognize that councils were soon suppressed by the Bolshevik party.

In this discussion between Roger Berkowitz and Artemy Magun, two Arendt scholars will ask whether Arendt was right in seeing the Russian Revolution as derivative from the French Revolution, whether her dismissal of Social Revolutions can be defended, and whether the revolution of her liking is possible in the present historical circumstances.

Time:

6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 202

Russian TableWednesday, November 8, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, November 1, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, October 25, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

The 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution SymposiumFriday, October 20, 2017
A symposium commemorating the centennial of the Russian Revolution which will examine a wide range of topics related to the history, politics, and culture of this seminal event in modern Russian history. Bard President Leon Botstein will deliver the keynote address, and speakers include scholars from Bard, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University (Smolny College). The scholars will discuss, among other topics, the history and politics of the Revolution, literature in early Soviet Russia, visual culture of the two 1917 revolutions and the Russian Civil War, music of the Revolution, and the Russian Revolution and Eastern European ethnic cultures. The symposium is free and open to the public.

Time:

9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Location:

Campus Center, Weis Cinema

Russian TableWednesday, October 18, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, October 11, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, October 4, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, September 27, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, September 20, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, September 13, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian TableWednesday, September 6, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Noor – A Brain OperaTuesday, August 29, 2017

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 102

Russian Language TableWednesday, May 10, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, May 3, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, April 26, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, April 19, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, April 12, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, April 5, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

In the Shadow of Stalin: Trump and PowerThursday, March 30, 2017
All authoritarian political figures and governments share many characteristics: suppression of free speech; intense loyalty to dictator, party and ideology; the concentration of power in a single individual, etc. Even so, wittingly or unwittingly, Trump’s manipulation of the media, attack on the intelligence community, his undermining of bureaucracy and normal governance process bear striking and uncanny resemblance to the strategies employed by Josef Stalin in his seizure of supreme power in Soviet Russia. In this lecture, I will discuss the mechanisms by which Stalin destroyed Soviet society and created a model of the first totalitarian state as a framework for understanding the threat Trump and his advisors pose to the future of democracy and liberal society.

Time:

6:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 202

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 29, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 22, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 15, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Division of the Russian Academia on LGBT Issues: Police Science vs Human Rights Monday, March 13, 2017Please join us for a talk with Alexander Kondakov, Assistant Professor, European University at St.Petersburg, Russia & Researcher, Center for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg & Deputy Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Social Policy Studies, Higher School of Economics, Moscow.

This talk draws on research of Russian sociologists as well on the speaker's analysis of academic publications generated in the aftermath of legal ban of the so-called “propaganda of homosexuality” in Russia. The studies suggest that Russian scholars assume a specific role in relation to various governmental initiatives characterized by police functions rather than academic rigor or empirical argumentation. Nevertheless, there are academic institutions that engage in critical examinations of current policies. It is especially evident from the writings about LGBT rights as human rights in Russia. This presentation offers an overview of the political and historical circumstances in which the Russian academia functions and provides an insightful account of this sort of division.

Time:

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 205

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 8, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 1, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Megachange in the Time of Trump and Technology

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Time:

6:45 pm

Location:

RKC 103

Russian Language TableWednesday, February 22, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, February 15, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, February 8, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russia and the Middle EastMonday, February 6, 2017
This panel brings together six distinguished speakers, including Bard faculty Sean McMeekin, Nesrin McMeekin, and James Ketterer, Emilbek Dzuraev (AUCA), Pavel Kononenko (FLAS, SPbSU / Smolny College) and Artemy Magun (Eropean University in St. Peteresburg), to address some of the most urgent questions related to Russia's tumultuous relations with Middle Eastern countries, such as Turkey and Syria. Please join us in RKC 103. The event is co-sponsored by Bard's Center for Civic Engagement.

Time:

7:00 pm

Location:

RKC103

Russian Language TableWednesday, February 1, 2017

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, December 21, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, December 14, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, December 7, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 30, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

From the Streets of Paris and Londonto a Cellar in St. Petersburg:How Russians' European TravelInforms Dostoevsky's Notes from UndergroundTuesday, November 29, 2016
Charles Arndt III is an Assistant Professor of Russian Language and Literature at Vassar College. After defending his PhD dissertation “Dostoevsky’s Engagement of Russian Intellectuals in the Question of Russia and Europe: From Winter Notes on Summer Impressions to The Devils” at Brown University, he has written articles on Dostoevsky’s literary relationship to the work and persona of Nikolai Karamzin and Denis Fonvizin, on the novelist’s use of everyday objects in descriptions of fantastical events, and on religious wandering (strannichestvo) in Dostoevsky’s novel The Adolescent. Professor Arndt has also explored and written on religious wanderers as a theme in the works of several other nineteenth-century Russian authors and has produced an article on Nikolai Leskov’s use of hagiographical devices. He is deeply interested in the inclusion of mythological space in descriptions of wanderers in Russian nineteenth-century literature.

Time:

5:30 pm

Location:

RKC 101

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 23, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 16, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 9, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 2, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, October 26, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, October 19, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, October 12, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Kyrgyzstan Study AbroadWednesday, October 12, 2016
Learn about the unique academic, cultural and civic engagement opportunities that a semester in Bard-American University of Central Asia entails. Challenge yourself on one of the less traveled roads of Study Abroad.

Time:

4:15 pm – 5:15 am

Location:

Campus Center, Lobby

Russian Language TableWednesday, October 5, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Book Talk: Soviet Space Dogs, by Olesya TurkinaTuesday, October 4, 2016Please join us for a talk with Olesya Turkina, Head of MA Program in Curatorial Studies and Associate Professor on the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Smolny College), St. Petersburg State University & Research Fellow at the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, about her book Soviet Space Dogs (FUEL Design & Publishing, 2014).

Soviet Space dogs were part of Soviet propaganda, and perhaps in its most demonstrative form. Unlike Yuri Gagarin, the first human to orbit the Earth, Laika, Belka and Strelka (the most famous dogs) as well as Zvezdochka, Otvazhny, Chernyshka and many other members of the order of four-legged cosmonauts have no past, no background in the traditional sense of the word. The story of their lives began and ended at the Institute of Aviation Medicine. The scientific biography of a Soviet space dog is a life described solely in biological parameters. It was left to the ideology of the Soviet system itself to proclaim the story of their epic feats.

Space dogs were respected for doing extremely dangerous job for the good of the country, and also humanity as a whole. The dogs were simultaneously real and fantastical beings. One day these unknown strays were living on the street, the next they were shown on television, and their portraits were published in newspapers. They also became characters in children’s books. In other words, space dogs are protagonists of a fairy tale created in the USSR: they were the martyrs and saints of communism.

The Soviet Space Dogs talk will describe the canonization of Laika after her tortural death when she was sent with a one-way Space ticket at Sputnik II and became a victim of Space Race between USSR and USA during Cold War. It will explain why and how Belka and Strelka who happily came back to the planet Earth from the orbit became the first Soviet pop-stars. The ‘dog’ step in the Soviet cosmonautic was richly illustrated with everyday artifacts – postage stamps, matchbox labels, cigarette packets, badges, postcards, children’s books – which will be presented to the talk's audience in all their splendor and fun quirkiness.

Time:

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Location:

Reem-Kayden Center Room 102

Russian Language TableWednesday, September 28, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, September 21, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, September 14, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film SeriesWednesday, September 7, 2016 – Thursday, September 8, 2016
Please join us on Wednesdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Film Dates: Sept 7 & 28Oct 19Nov 9 & 30

Time:

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, September 7, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Language TableWednesday, May 18, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, May 12, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Russian Film FestivalThursday, April 28, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, April 27, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, April 21, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, April 20, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, April 14, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, April 13, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, April 7, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, April 6, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, March 31, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 30, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, March 24, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 23, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, March 17, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 16, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, March 10, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 9, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, March 3, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, March 2, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, February 25, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, February 24, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, February 18, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, February 17, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russian Film FestivalThursday, February 11, 2016
Please join us on Thursdays for our Russian Film Festival. All films will be shown in Russian with English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, February 10, 2016

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Kline, College Room

Russia Today: A Discussion of Contemporary Russian Politics and SocietyThursday, February 4, 2016
A panel chaired by Jonathan Becker featuring

Artemy Magun, European University at St. Petersburg;

Carine Clément, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. Petersburg State University;

Ivan Kurilla, European University at St. Petersburg;

Pavel Kononenko, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. Petersburg State University; and

Ilya Kalinin, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. Petersburg State University

Sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement, Global and International Studies Program, and the Model UN Club

Time:

6:30 pm

Location:

Campus Center, Weis Cinema

Russian Language TableWednesday, December 16, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Language TableWednesday, December 9, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

The Desert of Forbidden Art a film by Tchavdar Georgiev and Amanda Pope

Thursday, December 3, 2015
How does art survive in a time of oppression? During the Soviet rule artists who stay true to their vision are executed, sent to mental hospitals or Gulags. Their plight inspires young Igor Savitsky. He pretends to buy state-approved art but instead daringly rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artist's works and creates a museum in the desert of Uzbekistan, far from the watchful eyes of the KGB. Though a penniless artist himself, he cajoles the cash to pay for the art from the same authorities who are banning it. Savitsky amasses an eclectic mix of Russian Avant-Garde art. But his greatest discovery is an unknown school of artists who settle in Uzbekistan after the Russian revolution of 1917, encountering a unique Islamic culture, as exotic to them as Tahiti was for Gauguin. They develop a startlingly original style, fusing European modernism with centuries-old Eastern traditions.

Ben Kingsley, Sally Field and Ed Asner voice the diaries and letters of Savitsky and the artists. Intercut with recollections of the artists' children and rare archival footage, the film takes us on a dramatic journey of sacrifice for the sake of creative freedom. Described as "one of the most remarkable collections of 20th century Russian art" and located in one of the world's poorest regions, today these paintings are worth millions, a lucrative target for Islamic fundamentalists, corrupt bureaucrats and art profiteers. The collection remains as endangered as when Savitsky first created it, posing the question whose responsibility is it to preserve this cultural treasure.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston

Russian Language TableWednesday, December 2, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 25, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

From the Balkan Mountains:Folk Dance of Bulgaria and MacedoniaWednesday, November 18, 2015Bard students and community members welcome!

Come join us and dance!!!

Time:

8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Location:

At the Eastern European Music & Leisure Club, Blum Hall, 55 Blithewood Avenue

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 18, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Film Series - Fall 2015Thursday, November 12, 2015

Please join us on the following dates for our film festival:
1. September 17
2. October 1
3. October 15
4. October 29
5. November 12
All films have English subtitles
All films will be screened on select Thursdays in PRE 110 (PRESTON THEATER) – 7-9 pm

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 11, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Olga Voronina, Assistant Professor of Russian

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Superbly edited by Olga Voronina and Brian Boyd, these letters reveal Nabokov as a considerable wit, with a gift for terse put-downs and fascination with what remained outside his class and culture – whether it was Greyhound buses in Massachusetts or the New York subway. Now, perhaps for the first time, the Russian writer emerges distinct from the shadows of his biographers, and as one of the most luxoriously besotted writers of all time.Ian Thomson, “Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov review – scenes from a happy marriage,”-The Observer,November 9, 2014

“… this extraordinary and wonderful collection of letters to his wife restores to us as the virtuoso of prose. They are some of the most rapturous love letters anyone has ever written, love letters from the length of a lifelong marriage; beautiful performances for Véra, Nabokov’s wife, and incidentally for us. The publishers have immediately issued this volume as a Penguin Classic.I don’t think we will quibble with that.”Philip Hensher, “Nabokov’s Love Letters are Some of the Most Rapturous Ever Written,”

“…meticulously edited . . . Nabokov writing for his first and most important reader . . . this is Nabokov uncut. . . Nabokov comes on strong . . . some remarkable pen portraits…”Duncan White, “Beauty out of the Banal,”-Sunday Telegraph, September 21, 2014

Time:

5:30 pm

Location:

RKC 103

Russian Language TableWednesday, November 4, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Film Series - Fall 2015Thursday, October 29, 2015

Please join us on the following dates for our film festival:
1. September 17
2. October 1
3. October 15
4. October 29
5. November 12
All films have English subtitles
All films will be screened on select Thursdays in PRE 110 (PRESTON THEATER) – 7-9 pm

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, October 28, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Language TableWednesday, October 21, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Film Series - Fall 2015Thursday, October 15, 2015

Please join us on the following dates for our film festival:
1. September 17
2. October 1
3. October 15
4. October 29
5. November 12
All films have English subtitles
All films will be screened on select Thursdays in PRE 110 (PRESTON THEATER) – 7-9 pm

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, October 14, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Language TableWednesday, October 7, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Film Series - Fall 2015Thursday, October 1, 2015

Please join us on the following dates for our film festival:
1. September 17
2. October 1
3. October 15
4. October 29
5. November 12
All films have English subtitles
All films will be screened on select Thursdays in PRE 110 (PRESTON THEATER) – 7-9 pm

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, September 30, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Dr. Mark KonecnyAssociate Director and Curator of the Archives and Library of the Institute of Modern Russian CultureThursday, September 24, 2015

Machines and Maidens: Russian Dance in America

Dr. Konecny will examine how Russian choreographers and dancers tried to adapt dance to the new medium of film (both silent and talkies) while democratizing their chosen art for mass culture. While most historians have concentrated on the elitist dances of Ballets Russes, Michel Fokine, and George Balanchine as emblematic of the influence of Russian choreographers on ballet, he would like to suggest an alternate history with an unlikely father: Nijinsky. While Russian dance is often associated with the flawless technical virtuosity of classical ballet, the actual history is much more a description of the vibrant evolution of modern dance and choreography that Russians were able to present to eager audiences of the new world. Innovators like George Balanchine, Adolph Bolm, and Theodore Kosloff transformed ballet in ways that are, to this day, unimaginable in Russia.

Time:

3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Location:

Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium

Russian Language TableWednesday, September 23, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Film Series - Fall 2015Thursday, September 17, 2015
Please join us on the following dates for our film festival:

1. September 172. October 13. October 154. October 295. November 12

All films have English subtitlesAll films will be screened on select Thursdays in PRE 110 (Preston Theater) – 7-9 pm

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Language TableWednesday, September 16, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Language TableWednesday, September 9, 2015

Time:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Back corner of Kline (by President's room)

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, May 5, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, April 28, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, April 21, 2015
See contact for more details!

The mass protests that started in Ukraine in November 2014 had two priorities: Ukraine's integration with the European Union, and the defense of human dignity in the face of a corrupt and violent power elite. The first priority can easily be translated into a universal language of human rights. The second priority is more deeply embedded in Ukraine's national culture, and led to the revival of some forms of direct democracy that existed in the history of the country, Maidan and Sich.

The term ‘EuroMaidan’ became popular in the West due to its easy translation into universal categories. However, it would be a mistake to explain recent events in Ukraine exclusively in terms of universal human rights. The success of the protests - the protesters’ ability to resist violent repressions and oust the former power elite - is due to a significant extent to the translation of these universal categories into cultural-specific terms and practices.

Time:

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Location:

Olin Language Center, Room 115

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, April 14, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, April 7, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, March 31, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Film Screening: Victory over The Sun (St. Petersburg, 1913)Tuesday, March 31, 2015
This screening is in conjunction with Prof. Minin's course, "The Language of the Silver Age and the Avant-Garde," and Prof. Felton-Dansky's course, "20th Century Avant-Garde Performance."

Be there! or be a black squareFirst time ever at Bard

Preceding the screening is a celebration of Kazimir Malevich and the Centenary of Suprematism. The Suprematism celebration will commence with the cutting of a Suprematist cake accompanied by a performance of music from Victory over the Sun as a musical background. This will be followed by the tasting of Malevich-design inspired cookies, bite-size Black Squares and self-service of a variety of teas. Photo ops in front of the wooden cutouts of the Malevich-design-inspired figures of characters from Victory over the Sun will also be available. Bring your cameras!

A discussion of the documentary and the opera will follow the screening.

As the five Central Asian states approach their first twenty-five years of independence, just how far they have gone toward modern statehood is an issue opened up to questions by a growing number of studies in politics of the region. While many outward traits of statehood have been easily adopted and looked becoming to these countries, a closer look reveals how problematic it has been for all five of them to actually become viable and stable states. The challenges these countries have faced, represented under the common rubric of their "post-soviet condition," allow some critical reflections on the predicament of modern state-building—or, of political constitution.

Time:

5:30 pm

Location:

Hegeman 204

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, March 24, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, March 17, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, March 10, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, March 3, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, February 24, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, February 17, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, February 10, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

From 'Mountain Eagle' to a 'Thousand Frogs': The Rise and Fall of Stalin's Image in Music

Thursday, February 5, 2015
How did Soviet leaders want to portray themselves in music and culture? Why did Stalin punish those artists who tried to distribute his pictures; and why did Prokofiev put illiterate Stalin quotes in his cantata? This lecture will discuss the 25-year history of Stalin's visualization in Soviet music, through the period of its condemnation and ridicule. The talk will demonstrate as-yet unpublished and archival materials and music compositions.

This talk will take place in Blum, room N217.

Time:

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Location:

Edith C. Blum Institute

The James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series Presents: “The State of Russian-Western Relations: Was there ever a ‘Post Cold-War order’?"Thursday, February 5, 2015
Panelists include:

Russian Film FestivalTuesday, February 3, 2015
See contact for more details!

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Preston Theater, 110

The Group Photo and the “Policy of Disappearance” in Stalin’s Russia

Tuesday, February 3, 2015
The aim of this lecture is to analyze from the political and aesthetic perspective the phenomenon of the elimination of the “public enemies” from group photos in Russia during the Stalin era. The analysis has as its empirical starting point photographs we have discovered in the course of research in the archives of several Russian cities. All these photos bear traces of editing, whether that be various marks such as blacking out, excisions or inscriptions left by the Stalin’s police.

This workshop will focus on lyrical and emotive single-melody Romani (Gypsy) songs from different countries of the Balkan region. With each song, we'll work on cultivating individual expression in a group context, and dive into the ornamentation and inherent improvisation in this rich song tradition. Songs taught will be in Romanés, the Indo-European Language spoken by Balkan Roma.

Singers of all levels welcome! No experience necessary. For more information about Eva, visit www.evasalina.com

"Where in the World is Viktor Yanukovich??"Thursday, March 6, 2014
Do you find yourself wondering what has happened/is happening/will continue to happen in Ukraine? The news has consistently been flooded with stories of the Ukrainian revolution and the president (? impeached? maybe? no.... viktor?) of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich.

This is a lovely opportunity provided to you by the Russian Club and Student Government, an opportunity for you to ask questions like:What was the political background of Ukraine before this revolution?How was it kickstarted?What the heck is happening with Viktor Yanukovich???And other questions, as entry level or advanced as you'd like to ask.

We are also awaiting confirmation from a member of our Human Rights faculty.

ASK WHATEVER YOU'D LIKE ABOUT UKRAINEEDUCATE YOURSELVES ON THESE CURRENT EVENTSIT WILL BE FUNBARD COLLEGEHUMAN RIGHTS WATCHFUN

Time:

5:00 pm

Location:

Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium

“The Crisis in Ukraine: The Start of a New Era of Confrontation?”Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The current situation in Ukraine as been described by British Foreign Secretary William Hague as “The Greatest Crisis in Europe in the XXIst Century.” The panel on Wednesday will focus on the international challenges related to the current crisis and potential scenarios for the future.

“Inscribing Nature” presents aspects of a longer book project, Collecting Empire in Revolutionary Russia: Museums, Lives and Politics in Siberia. The book argues that regional knowledge and politics were co-produced in late imperial Siberia in a way that later served as a model for early Soviet ideas about making people and space Soviet. One of two cases in the book in which rocks play a central role in uniting or dividing people, “Inscribing Nature” describes change over time in this relationship between local knowledge and political subjectivity between approximately 1905 and 1929. As the title indicates, the talk focuses particularly on people’s inscription of political action into forests and rocks, and their endeavors to inscribe natural wonders onto their own bodies and minds. Since one of the particular episodes described in this talk spurred the direction of the author’s interests for a future project, the talk concludes with brief thoughts on a history of eating and empire in Russia/the USSR, 1905-2005.

Psoy Korlenko is an internationally known Russian bard, singer-songwriter, scholar, journalist, essay-writer and musician, ex-artist in residence at Trinity College (Hartford, CT), University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA). On stage since 1997, Psoy created a unique multilingual cabaret, combining traditions of Russian and European folk song, Yiddish folk and theater song, with elements of rap and free style poetry. He has released a book of lyrics and essays and more than 10 CDs, some of them in collaboration with other artists. Experimenting with a wide variety of singing traditions, Psoy performs in about six or seven languages, most frequently in Russian, Yiddish, English and French.

Russian-U.S. Cooperation/Contradiction in Light of the Syrian CrisisTuesday, September 17, 2013
Featuring Alexander Kubyshkin, Professor of International Relations, Smolny College/Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University

Time:

9:00 am

Location:

Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium

Russian Film SeriesWednesday, May 1, 2013All films have English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Olin 206

Chechnya and Dagestan: Beyond the HeadlinesWednesday, April 24, 2013

Gumer IsaevAssociate Professor of History and Islamic Studies

Dimitry DubrovskyAssociate Professor of Human Rights

Alexander KubyshkinProfessor of International Affairs

Dimitry PavlovAssociate Professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies

Time:

9:00 am – 10:00 am

Location:

Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium

Russian Film SeriesWednesday, April 17, 2013All films have English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Protest Movements in Russia, 2011-2012: Who, Why, and What's the Result

Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Professor Artemy Magun, Head of International Relations, Political Science, and the Human Rights Program at Smolny Colege and a Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the European University at Saint Petersburg, discusses the role of populism in contemporary Russian protest movements

Time:

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 204

An Evening of Central Asian Culture and Cooking with AUCA-Bard StaffTuesday, April 16, 2013
Join the AUCA-Bard staff for an evening of Central Asian culture and cooking! Learn to make Eurasian favorites like plov and manti or just enjoy the food and company.

Held in Robbins House kitchens and common room.

Time:

6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Robbins House

Thinking the City: Literature, Theory, Visual ArtsFriday, April 12, 2013
This day-long workshop brings together Bard faculty and students to explore a range of questions on teaching and learning about cities in an academic context.

We will ask: How do the reading of texts, the building of cultural monuments, and the creation of artistic works transform our understandings of the city? Is it possible to read the city as a text or view it as a cultural monument? Are there cities better preserved in cultural memory than physical space? How are identities and ideas of cities formed through literature, film, and other media? In what ways can these different strategies of representation transform the urban experience and the city itself?

Students will present their work on cities at a panel, to be followed by a roundtable for faculty on teaching methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and principles of canon formation to consider when discussing cities and urban space in the classroom.

Time:

10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 102

Russian Film SeriesWednesday, April 3, 2013All films have English subtitles.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Central Asian Cooking NightThursday, March 7, 2013

Join the AUCA-Bard staff for an evening of Central Asian culture and cooking! Learn to make Eurasian favorites like plov and manti or just enjoy the food and company.

Held in Tewksbury Hall kitchens and common room

Time:

6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Tewksbury Hall

Baktygul AlievWednesday, April 25, 2012

Critical Social Theory in Dostoevsky's Fiction, Or How to Think Ethically about Others

Dostoevsky's novels tell us what mental attitudes we must take towards each other prior to any social interaction to foster a society conducive to the full development of our individual potential and personal freedoms.

Time:

3:00 pm

Location:

RKC, 103

"My Russia"Thursday, April 8, 2010

to honor the memory of our beloved teacher and friend,

Jennifer Day

4:00 – 5:00 p.m. Bard Students

Anne Buchwald, Undergraduate Program in REAS, Bard College"The State of Architecture in Russia Today"

Stalin as ReaderTuesday, March 10, 2009"Stalin as Reader: What the Stalin Archive tells us of theman and his ideas and their enduring power in contemporary Russia"

A lecture by Jonathan Brent, Editorial Director of Yale University Press and Visiting Alger Hiss Professor of Literature and History at Bard College

What do we learn of Stalin the man from his archive? I will discuss the nature of Stalin's Personal Archive, how I came into possession of it for Yale Press, and what it reveals of his literary, intellectual, and political interests. Stalin annotated his ample collection of works by Lenin,Trotsky, Bukharin, Radek, and other Bolshevik leaders with copious marginal notes that provide dramatic evidence of a side of his interests andpreoccupations not fully appreciated in the West. I will discuss some of these annotations and what they tell us.

Time:

5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Olin Language Center, Room 115

Maslenitsa 2009Thursday, February 26, 2009
Join us for an evening of Russian fun, including bliny and the burning of the chuchelo!

Time:

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Location:

Bard Hall, Bard College Campus

Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem"Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Professor Artemy Magun, Associate professor, Smolny Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the State University of Saint-Petersburg and author of "The Negative Revolution," will give a talk on Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem" and its "hidden political theological agenda."

Time:

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Location:

Olin Language Center, Room 115

Human Rights NGOs and the War of MemoriesMonday, February 9, 2009
Professor Dmitry Dubrovsky, Associate Professor in the program of International Relations, Political Science, and Human Rights at Smolny and an expert in human rights in contemporary Russia, will give a talk focusing on recent attacks on the human rights organization "Memorial."

Time:

5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 102

Russian TableTuesday, February 3, 2009 – Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Starting Feb. 3, join us every Tuesday 12:30-1:30 in the President's Room at Kline to chat in Russian or about things Russian over lunch!

Time:

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Location:

Kline, President's Room

Georgia and the Future of US-Russian RelationsMonday, September 8, 2008
Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program and the Bard-West Point Exchange present
a panel discussion on the conflict in Georgia and its implications for relations between the United States and Russia
Free and open to the public
Panel:
Major Jonathan Dunn, assistant professor, U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Russian/Eurasian foreign officer, U.S. Army
Carter Page, Director, Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, and former deputy branch office manager, Merrill Lynch, Moscow
Jonathan Becker, Dean of International Studies at Bard and author of Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press Politics and Identity in Transition.

Time:

7:30 pm

Location:

Campus Center, Multipurpose Room

Russian MusicSunday, March 9, 2008
As part of our Russian Week, we are proud to present a concert this Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Please join us at Bard Hall to hear Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata Op.40 ( performed by Qi Zhen Liu) and Arensky's Piano Trio, Op. 32, no 1 ( performed by Yiwen Shen, Luosha Fang and Qi Zhen liu)!

Time:

7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Location:

Bard Hall, Bard College Campus

Maslenitsa 2008Thursday, March 6, 2008
Please join us for our yearly celebration of Russian "Butter Week" (Maslenitsa), to include lots of bliny, a multfilm screening, and the burning of the chuchelo to say goodbye to winter! After our celebration we will be going to the Fisher Center to see the Bard production of the Presnyakov Brothers' play "Terrorism" at 7 p.m.

Time:

5:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Location:

Bard Hall, Bard College Campus

Gothic Aesthetics and Gothic Morality: Challenge to Democracy?Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Lecture by Dina Khapaeva,professor of history at Smolny College, where she also serves as Associate Director for Research and director of Smolny Collegium International Interdisciplinary Institute for
Advanced Research

"Virgil in Vyacheslav Ivanov and T.S. Eliot"Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Join us for a lecture by Yale professor Vasily Rudich.

Time:

5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 102

Russian ArkThursday, March 8, 2007
Join us for the opening of the 2007 Russian Film Series. We will be watching Sokurov's "Russian Ark" at 7:30 in Weiss Cinema

Time:

7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Location:

Campus Center, Weis Cinema

"Media and Government in Contemporary Russia"Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Join us for a lecture by Ada Baskina, sociologist, journalist, and faculy member of the Moscow State University Department of Journalism.

Time:

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 102

Maslenitsa 2007Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Join us in Bard Hall, starting at 7:00, to celebrate Russian "Butter Week" with bliny, songs, and games.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Bard Hall, Bard College Campus

Russia Rising: Eurasia, The United States and the European UnionThursday, December 14, 2006
The Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program cordially invites you to:
The James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series
“Russia Rising: Eurasia, The United States and the European Union.”
John Hulsman, author of Paradigm for the New World Order and co-author of Ethical
Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World; Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins
School of Advanced International Studies.
Anatol Lieven, author of The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path
to Independence and co-author of Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the
World; Senior Research Fellow, New America Foundation.
Reservations Required: RSVP to grais@bard.edu

Time:

6:15 pm – 8:15 pm

Location:

Bard Hall, 410 West 58th Street, NY, NY

St. Petersburg: An Open CityThursday, December 7, 2006
Professor Ivan Sablin will be visiting us from Smolny College, where he teaches and writes on the architecture of St. Petersburg. The talk is sponsored by the Institution of International Liberal Education and the Russian-Eurasian Studies Program.

Time:

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Location:

Campus Center, Weis Cinema

Russian Film ClubThursday, September 21, 2006
Join us for the new cult favorite "Night Watch" (directed by Timur Bekmambetov, 2004). Refreshments to be served before the screening.

Time:

6:30 pm

Location:

Campus Center, Weis Cinema

At the Trough: Economic Politics in post-Soviet RussiaTuesday, April 11, 2006
Join us for a talk with Craig Mellow, Russian economics specialist and former Fortune correspondent in Moscow. Mr. Mellow is a leading expert on new problems in Russian economics in general and on oligarchs in particular.

Time:

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 204

The WayfarerThursday, March 16, 2006 – Saturday, March 18, 2006
THE WAYFARER, by Valery Briusov, directed by Julie Rossman.
This early 20th-century play by one of Russia's leading Symbolist poets juxtaposes real life and dream, human time and eternity, in a thought-provoking and sometimes disturbing way.

Time:

8:00 pm

Location:

Old Gym

Maslenitsa 2006Thursday, March 9, 2006
It's time once again (one week late) for the Russian Butter Day (pre-Lenten) celebration! Join us for an evening of bliny, song and dance, and the beginning of the end of winter!

Time:

8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Location:

Bard Hall, Bard College Campus

Dostoevsky and his FamilyTuesday, March 7, 2006
Natal'ya Vladimirovna Shwartz, associate of the F.M. Dostoevsky Memorial-Literary Museum in St. Petersburg, will give a presentation on "Dostoevsky and his Family." She will talk with us about the museum where she works as well as about her research into Dostoevsky's ancestors and descendants. The presentation will be in Russian.
The presentation will start at 1:00. Russian Table starts at 12:30; come by early to get acquainted and have lunch!

Guest Speaker at Russian TableTuesday, February 7, 2006
Please join us for Russian Table today in Kline Committee Room to welcome Tatiana Alexandrovna Boborykina, professor of literature and drama at Smolny College. Tatiana Alexandrovna will talk to us about her innovative performance courses at Smolny and show us clips from recent class projects staged at the Bobrinsky Palace.

Time:

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Location:

Kline, Committee Room

Russian TableTuesday, January 31, 2006 – Sunday, May 21, 2006
Meets every Tuesday. All levels of Russian are welcome to come and practice informal speaking and listening skills over lunch.

Time:

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Location:

Kline, Committee Room

Russian Movie Night/PartySaturday, December 10, 2005
Join us for a screening of the 1998 film "Land of the Deaf" at 7:00 in Preston Theater. The film will be followed by a bliny party, Russian music, and games in Preston 128.

Time:

7:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Location:

Preston

Guggenheim TripFriday, December 2, 2005
The first-year Russian class will be taking a trip to see the "Russia!" exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. We will have a Russian-speaking tour guide there, to be followed by dinner at a Russian restaurant in Manhattan.

Time:

9:30 am – 8:00 pm

Location:

off campus

HIV/AIDS and Human RightsWednesday, October 19, 2005 – Friday, October 21, 2005
Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and its Gagarin Center for Human Rights are organizing an International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights , to be held in St. Petersburg , Russian Federation , on October 19–21, 2005. The conference will bring together experts, scholars, activists and practitioners working at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and human rights, from around the world, including significant participation by people living with HIV/AIDS.
***Students have the chance to win a fully-sponsored trip to the conference by writing a 250-300 word essay on the topic of the importance of human rights in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Deadline for submission is Sept. 20, to mitina@bard.edu.

Location:

Smolny College, St. Petersburg, Russia

The Lower DepthsSaturday, October 1, 2005 – Monday, October 3, 2005
The Bard Theater Program presents Maxim Gorky's 1902 play "The Lower Depths."
In 1902, Maxim Gorky, known later for his collaboration with the Bolshevik party and proto-Socialist Realist writing, was working on a dramatic formula that would both allow him to take a realistic approach to social problems and also allow room for philosophical speculation. About "The Lower Depths" he wrote, "The basic question I wanted to raise was: what is better, truth or compassion? What is needed more? Must one carry compassion to the point of resorting to lies...? This is not a subjective, but a philosophic question."
Come see how Gorky works this question out in the setting of a Russian flophouse, the "lower depths" of life and truth.
Performances at 7:00 p.m. 10/1 , 10/2 and 10/3 with an additional matinee on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Please call the Fisher Center Box Office at 7900 to make your reservation. This is a free performance.

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Fisher Center, LUMA Theater

Georgian DaySaturday, September 24, 2005
Come and learn about Georgia and the Caucasus region.
From 4:00-6:00, participate in the Economic and Political Panel (Olin 102), in which the
current developments in the region will be discussed. One of the issues on the
agenda includes the direction Georgia has taken since the Rose Revolution in the
fall of 2003 when Eduard Shevardnadze was ousted and the new government came to
power. We will also talk about the strategic importance of Georgia due to its
proximity to the Middle East and its role as a pathway for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, serving as an alternative route for the transport of oil from the Caspian region to Europe. Speakers include Tamar Khitarishvili of the Bard economics program, Mamuka Tsereteli, executive director of the Georgian-American Business Partnership, and Emilie Dickson of Bard's Institute for International Liberal Education.
The panel will be followed by a reception in Olin atrium at 6:00 and a dance performance by the Georgian dance ensemble "The Dancing Crane" at 7:30pm in Olin auditorium. Georgia "has developed a dance tradition which rivals classic ballet in its demanding and refined technique, but which has a style all its own, containing strength, elegance and graceful movement evolved over centuries. The music, played on traditional folk instruments is based on ancient modes which help distinguish the dances as among the most beautiful in the world" (www.dancingcrane.org).

Time:

4:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Location:

Olin 102, atrium, and auditorium

Who is DJ Spinoza?Monday, May 2, 2005
A Reading with Eugene Ostashevsky
Monday, May 2 at 7pm
OLIN 102
Ostashevsky will read his translations of the Russian absurdist
poets Alexander Vvedensky, Daniil Kharms and Nikolai Zabolotsky, as well as his own short verse play, Infinite Recursor Or The Bride Of DJ Spinoza.
***
Eugene Ostashevsky was born in Leningrad, USSR in 1968, and has been a citizen of Brooklyn since 1979. Books of his poems to appear in 2005 include Iterature (Ugly Duckling Presse) and Infinite Recursor Or The Bride Of DJ Spinoza, with art by Eugene Timerman (Studioradia / Ugly Duckling Presse). He is also the editor and main translator of OBERIU: An Anthology of Russian Absurdism, 1926-1941, forthcoming from Northwestern University Press. A winner of the NYFA Poetry Fellowship and the Wytter Bynner Poetry Translation Fellowship, he teaches at NYU.
Sponsored by the Bard Russian Program and the Division of Languages and Literature

Time:

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 102

Maslenitsa CelebrationThursday, March 10, 2005
Join us for a traditional Russian celebration of the sun--Maslenitsa (Butter Day), the feasting before Lent. We will have a "bliny" feast, a full music and dance program, and a traditional burning of the Maslenitsa effigy.

Time:

8:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Location:

Bard Hall, Bard College Campus

Stalin--Dictatorship and OligarchyWednesday, February 2, 2005
The talk by Oleg Khlevniuk is based on
materials newly available from the Russian archives--many of them published with rare thoroughness and commitment by Yale University Press's series "Annals of Communism," executive editor: Jonathan Brent.
Khlevniuk is the author of "The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror," the first comprehensive and historically accurate accouts of the Soviet labor camp system; and co-editor of "The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence, 19331-36," among others.
His talk on Wednesday will analyze Stalin's dictatorship, its strengths and limitations, as well as the myth of the liberal opposition to it. In particular, he will talk about the emergence of the oligarchical form of government in Stalin's shadow.

Time:

7:30 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 102

The Logic of DemocracyMonday, January 31, 2005
Nikolay Koposov, Dr. of History at St. Petersburg State University, is the author of numerous artlcles and two books: "How Historians Think" and "Down with Cats' Massacre" (both in Russian) The latter, which is coming out in Russia this month, is a reflection on current tendencies in
the Social Sciences.

Time:

7:00 pm

Location:

Olin, Room 102

An Evening with Alexander BurovFriday, January 28, 2005
Alexander Burov, acclaimed Russian cinematographer based in St. Petersburg, will be screening his film "Father and Son" (2003, directed by Alexander Sokurov) with discussion to follow.

Time:

7:00 pm

Location:

Avery Film Center

K.I. from CrimeWednesday, January 26, 2005
We will be making a trip into New York City to see a performance of "K.I. from Crime" at the Foundry Theatre. The acclaimed performance is based on the character of Katerina Ivanovna from Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment." It is performed in Russian and English simultaneously.

Time:

7:30 pm

Location:

Foundry Theatre, New York City

ART MINISTRY (In Art We Trust, Since We Can't Explain It)Tuesday, October 26, 2004
"The Gospel According to Alex."
Presented by Conceptual Artist Alex Melamid.
The Russian dissident artists Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid made a name for themselves in 1972. While living in Russia, Komar & Melamid initiated the “Sots Art” movement, the Soviet answer to Pop Art. Instead of dealing with issues of overblown consumerism and popular culture, they attacked Mother Russia’s overproduction of ideology and socialist propaganda. Some of their work was destroyed and their exhibitions closed by the government. In an attempt to escape this artistic persecution Komar & Melamid emigrated to America in 1978, where they established a studio in Manhattan.
Their work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art. They were a part of the Venezia Biannual and Documenta in 1987 and 1999 respectively.
Sponsored by the Human Rights Project, the Russian Studies Program, Art History Department, Department of Philosophy, the Center for Curatorial Studies, the Division of Languages and Literature, and the Institute for International Liberal Education

Time:

7:00 pm

Location:

Chapel of the Holy Innocents

PETERSBURG: Impressions of a Novel by Andrei BelyFriday, September 10, 2004 – Saturday, September 11, 2004
A reprise of the summer 2004 performance in St. Petersburg (see details below). Russian students from Smolny College join Bard students in staging the play.

Time:

7:00 pm

Location:

Fisher Center, LUMA Theater

Smolny Students Visiting BardSaturday, August 28, 2004 – Monday, September 13, 2004
7 Russian students from Smolny College will be here from August 28-September 13 in order to participate in the Bard-Smolny theater project "Impressions of Petersburg." Please join us in welcoming them and showing them around Bard!

PETERSBURG: Impressions of a Novel by Andrei BelyThursday, July 8, 2004 – Friday, July 9, 2004
A joint adaptation and theater performance project by students of Bard College and Smolny College (St. Petersburg, Russia) based on the novel Petersburg by Andrei Bely
With textual support/guidance by Stephanie Fleischmann and dramaturgy/ guidance by Tatiana Boborykina
Directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky
ABOUT THE PROJECT
“It is extremely difficult to adopt one system of education to another… We are pioneers,” said Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, at the Smolny Commencement in St.Petersburg. “People think more quickly than bureaucracy changes.” This project shows how quickly people can think and develop a collaboration between two colleges. Andrey Bely’s novel Petersburg was chosen as the basis for the production. The two groups of students, under the guidance of Stephanie Fleischmann (Bard College) and Tatiana Boborykina (Smolny College) started working on the project in the beginning of the spring semester, 2004. Almost every week, the groups had the opportunity to exchange their views and ideas—on Andrey Bely, as a man and a writer; on symbolism, on literary allusions of the novel, and of course, on the novel itself, via videoconferences. In these discussions we explored possible approaches to translating the novel into the language of theater.
Moving in parallel, both groups evolved an outline and then started working on each particular scene. This work was discussed almost daily via on online conferencing forum. Director Dmitry Troyanovsky joined the project, and finally, the virtual collaboration between the two groups became real: the Americans arrived in St. Petersburg, and immediately the united group started readings of the script alongside theater training and rehearsals under the guidance of Troyanovsky.
Indeed, we felt ourselves “pioneers” in the adaptation of a novel—one that is not just difficult, but potentially resistant to being made into a play—with students from two universities, from two different countries with different historical and cultural backgrounds, who actually speak two different languages. In fact, we all had to find—and not just metaphorically—a mutual language in which the participants of the project as well as the characters of the play would speak. In this respect the project as a whole was a challenge. We had not only to read, understand and perform the novel by Bely. In fact, on a broader scale, we had to understand (or learn to understand) ourselves and our colleagues, to feel and support each other, forming a real ensemble of creative individuals who would be at one with their partners. It’s hard to think of a better way of teaching and learning, a better way of collaboration, than the one we experienced in this project—through joint cultural activity, through art and beauty.
—Tatiana Bobykrina
THE PLAY
In adapting Petersburg, we tried to define the themes and ideas in the novel that we wanted to reveal through our play. There of course are the questions of the past and the future; the danger of red terror and terrorism; family relations; problems of solitude, of misunderstanding, of unhappy love and nostalgia for love; and of language. Every character of the novel is searching for his/her own truth. Some, like Dostoevsky’s characters, dream of justice and freedom but are fatefully brought to murder. Some are looking for love but, instead of real people, find either dolls or masks… In the dream-like, imaginary world of Petersburg, like the mist from its marshy lands, rise tje eternal questions of Fate and Truth.
In our performance we tried to reveal some of the ideas of the novel and to convey its world of shadows and light, music and poetry. What you will see is not exactly the dramatization of the novel or its adaptation for stage. It is rather our “Impressions of Petersburg.”
- Tatiana Boborykina
NOTE:
This performance, which took place in early July in St. Petersburg, will be reprised at Bard College in early September 2004.